A local radio talk show host, Michael Graham, said last week, “Valentine’s Day is about all the stuff we (men) stink at.” A.R. Gurney’s commentary on men and women is a bit more sophisticated in his play, "Love Letters", being performed the next two weekends—before and after Valentine’s Day—in Volunteers Hall at the Harvard Public Library.

The play is an epistolary between two people, Melissa and Andy, who meet in grade school. Their paths diverge but their correspondence continues over a period of decades. Each of the actors reads aloud the letters the two sent to each other. It is well-written and sophisticated, and, as director Bob Eiland says, it is brilliant in its complexity.

Davida Bagatelle runs through her lines with Doc Westerling. (Photo by Lisa Aciukewicz)

The epistolary format can be powerful. It is different from other plays in that the actors do not memorize their lines. They read through the script many times together before the performance but are literally reading during the performance. The effect can be intense and moving.

The play features all local people, some of whom have never acted before. Chances are you know at least one of them: Terry Symula, Davida Bagatelle, Martha Brooks, and Pam Hill will all perform as Melissa. Doc Westerling, Tim Clark, Michael McGarty, and Bob Eiland will perform the role of Andy.

Eiland said that the intent of inviting these particular eight individuals to perform was to maximize attendance and thereby increase the fundraising potential.

“The hope is that these people are well enough known in town to make a big draw,” he said.

Eiland, partially responsible for bringing this production to Harvard, is a member of the Harvard Friends of the Arts (HFOA). HFOA is charged with bringing cultural and educational opportunities to Volunteers Hall and to the residents of Harvard. Eiland said he feels that in this case he has covered all bases.

“This is a cultural event open to the public and acts as an educational opportunity for the cast members. Therefore, it fills both requirements of the group’s charge,” he said.

Terry Symula and Tim Clark rehearse. (Photo by Lisa Aciukewicz)

Eiland is a playwright, an actor, an entrepreneur, and the director of Love Letters. He will perform as Andy on Feb. 16, opposite Pam Hill, with whom he has worked professionally for a long time. This is his third time performing this role, and his second time directing this play. He said that the more he reads the script, the more he sees the subtle, complex things in it. In acting, he said, you find things within you that enable you to do a credible job of representing the characters and situations.

“In all characters you find things that you share and things that you relate to,” said Eiland.

Pam Hill, a former Bolton resident, has known Eiland for years professionally. She has worked in various roles in theater for many years but has not had this role before. She, like Eiland, is constantly struck with the subtle complexities of the script. She said she finds her character, Melissa, “troubled, but great.” She said the brilliance with which Gurney portrays her deterioration, slowly and subtly over the course of the play, is challenging to act, but fascinating. Hill said she likes Melissa’s sarcasm and wit, adding that she finds her quite emotional, as she herself is. She also finds similarities in Melissa’s loyalty to friends and how she treasures that confident friendship. She said she can relate to the artistic part of Melissa and what it gives her.

“I know because it gives it to me too! It feeds my soul,” she said.

The other cast members are familiar faces in Harvard who wear other hats most of the time. Some of them have acted before. Some have never acted before. Some of them wonder what the heck they are doing this for.

Terry Symula, known locally as an avid school supporter working for the Harvard Schools Trust on the heavy-hitting annual fundraiser, the Dinner Theater Gala, is one who has not acted before. She said she is enjoying the work and the opportunity to try something that she has never tried before. She said she finds the piece “nice, but sad,” adding that it is giving her some insight into her own children. In typical Symula fashion she added a personal anecdote:

“When I called to tell my mother, I could hear her thinking, ‘Oh, no, my daughter has finally lost her mind. She will be leaving George and the kids and packing it up for Broadway any second now…’”

Symula said she is particularly enjoying the instruction in the craft of acting and the direction of Eiland.

Tim Clark, currently serving on the Board of Selectmen, plays the role of Andy opposite Symula’s Melissa on Feb. 8. He has worked in community theater a bit in the past, mostly on the technical side, but it is not his first time on stage. Andy is a “troubled soul” according to Clark.

“He is not like me at all, although some aspects of his personality and his struggle to identify himself in relationships resonate with me,” Clark said.

Clark’s comments about Andy’s insistence on letter-writing as the primary form of communication are interesting. He feels that Andy uses the written words to shield himself and as a kind of control mechanism.

“Andy enjoys the expository but also sees it as a way to define himself carefully and also to control the message,” said Clark.

Martha Brooks, who will perform on Feb. 15, teaches art at the Bromfield School. She said that an actor brings to this type of piece the ability to put him- or herself in the position of the character and give the audience what they need in order to read between the lines and know what the character is feeling. According to Brooks, this is no different from any other dramatic piece in which the actors react to each other and have memorized their lines. In this piece the actors are reacting to the words in the letters, she said.

“It must be played real, but not over the top,” she added. Brooks said she feels a kinship with her character, Melissa. “She is close to my heart.”

She calls Melissa a very sensitive, artistic person and said she is very intense. The difference between herself and Melissa is the tragedy of Melissa’s life. Brooks performs with her longtime friend and colleague Michael McGarty, and finds it a comfortable fit.

McGarty, an English and foreign language teacher at Bromfield, as well as the director of the Drama Club, plays Andy opposite Brooks. He has directed more than 80 shows in the last 30 years. He said he respects Brooks’ acting talent and knows it well, having directed her several times before. As for the characters in Love Letters, portraying their inability to connect emotionally is “tricky,” he said.

Town Moderator Doc Westerling will play Andy on the 9th, with Davida Bagatelle as Melissa, and describes his character as an upper-class, preppy guy. Westerling said Andy is a guy who had a great foundation in school and his home life, and wound up in later years as a successful U.S. senator. He said he finds the character is “kind of a jerk sometimes.”

He added, “Although he is not of my political persuasion, our early lives are similar.”

Andy has trouble explaining himself and doesn’t listen very well, said Westerling, who sees Andy as the kind of guy who ends up a long time afterward regretting what he has lost. Westerling is a choral singer but has not acted before. He said he is enjoying the rehearsals, after initially being reluctant. Once he had read through the play with Bagatelle the first time, he said, he became excited to perform it.

For her part, Bagatelle is intrigued by Melissa’s flippancy and her lack of emotion, despite finding that all her words are emotional. Bagatelle describes Melissa as a person who is dealing with some harsh realities of life and is both strong and weak. She said she admires the character’s frankness but finds that just like in real life people don’t always hear what you are really saying or take things the way you mean them, especially when done in writing. She offered the example of reading an e-mail from someone and not getting what the person means, or worse, having someone react to your e-mail in a way that you had not anticipated. Bagatelle said she is excited about the opportunity. She said she has found Eiland great and has enjoyed getting to know Westerling better.

This is a love story for grown-ups, with grown-up themes. It is not intended for children younger than high-school age. It is a real-life love story whose intensity comes directly from the audacity of the author to lay open vital themes and let them play out in real people’s life dramas.

There are four performances to choose from over the next two weekends: Feb. 8 and 9 and Feb. 15 and 16. Showtime is 8 p.m. for all four performances, with doors opening at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $12 for adults and $7 for seniors and are on sale at the library.